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R&D^
EXAMINING TECHNOLOGY AND PUTTING IT TO USEINSTALL YOUR GAME
The installation process for appli-
cations under Wine is generally the
same as it is in Windows because
Wine uses the same installer. We’re going to
focus on installing our game of choice, Sins
of a Solar Empire, but you can use the same
process to install a variety of other titles.
Start by opening a Linux terminal and typ-
ing winefile. This pulls up the applica-
tion’s Windows Explorer-like interface.
Navigate to your optical device by
clicking the appropriate icon at the top
of the window—it should look like a CD
going into a drive. From there, double-click
your game’s installation file (setup.exe, for
example) and let the installer do its thing.
Follow the instructions as you would
for any game being installed in Windows
but pay attention to any errors or glitches
that you see. Chances are good that you’ll
notice fonts sizes are off and, in some cases,
the fonts won’t display at all. We’ll come
back to that later.
Once you’ve installed the game, you’ll
want to make it easy to launch. You can do
this by finding the executable file and link-
ing it to a launcher—the Linux version of a
Windows shortcut. By default, Wine hides
its fake Windows partition in your
/home/[user name] directory. So you’ll
want to right-click your Linux desktop and
select the Launcher creation option. Name
the Launcher whatever you want, but start
the command as follows: wine “/home/
[user name]/.wine/drive_c/”. Af-
ter the “drive_c” section, type out the path
where you installed your program.
If you can’t get a launcher to work,
don’t worry. Some games end up working
only by double-clicking the executable
within the Winefile application.TROUBLESHOOTING
Although we’ve been able to
install and run Microsoft Office,
Guild Wars, and NHL 08 without
any problems, Sins of a Solar Empire was
trickier. This gives us a perfect transition to
Wine’s biggest headache: troubleshooting.
In our case, the fonts for our game were
the wrong size and, in some cases, com-
pletely nonexistent (see above). If this hap-
pens to you, there’s a quick workaround.
From a Windows installation, copy the
fonts out of the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.
You’ll then want to launch Winefile and
copy the fonts back into Wine’s simulated
Windows installation, same C:\Windows\
Fonts folder.
If your chosen application gives you
compatibility problems, it’s time to return
to the Winecfg configuration tool. If the
application was developed for a specific
instance of Windows, try using the Appli-
cations tab to force Wine to use a suitable
compatibility layer for the program. Click
Add Application, choose your executable
file, and choose the appropriate version of
Windows.
The configuration tool also lets you
change graphics and audio options as
mentioned earlier. Disabling hardware
support can keep games from crashing but
sacrifices game performance in doing so.
When in doubt, turn settings to minimum
and bring them up slowly as you attempt
to troubleshoot the best configuration for
your game.Not everyone has the time or patience to wrangle Wine into submission, and
TransGaming Technologies (www.transgaming.com) is hoping to bank on this fact.
The company has produced a “commercial re-implementation of the Windows API for
Linux with a focus on gaming.” Sound like Wine? It should. Transgaming’s product,
Cedega, is based in part on the free Wine source code. Many in the open-source com-
munity view this as an outrage, but Transgaming insists it violates no licenses. For a
small fee, it offers “Wine that works” with a list of games guaranteed to run with it.ALTERNATE APPROACHWine vs. Cedega
WORK IN THE WINE LIBRARY
When you are confi guring a new
application, it’s wise to launch it from
a terminal until you have the kinks
ironed out. Doing so allows you to read the
error messages that stream down the screen as
the application runs. Bear in mind that many
of these messages are not errors; they are used
by developers to tune Wine. This makes them
useful sources of information, particularly
when they spit out .dll (dynamically linked
library) errors.
A dynamically linked library is a fancy
term from Microsoft that refers to a library of
soft ware used by various applications. These
libraries are “linked” to applications as they are
needed. If this reminds you of the package-
managed dependencies mentioned at the be-
ginning of the article, hand yourself a gold star.
These libraries are what Wine replaces when it
runs your MS-based applications.
Sometimes, the libraries are missing or in-
complete. In this case, the .dll errors mentioned
earlier will give you the name of the specifi c
fi les that are causing problems. Replacement
.dll fi les can be found in your Windows install
or in a regular Windows install of your applica-
tion. To fi x errors, you can use the Library tab in
Wine’s confi guration tool to replace Wine’s .dll
with the authentic .dll.5
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